Monco

How can I learn to hear counterpoint... without the aid of the piano? Whereas I have no trouble hearing and singing single lines, I'm not quite sure how I should approach hearing counterpoint. When writing counterpoint, it seems to me that it's absolutely essential to be able to hear both voices simultaneously, rather than just choose appropriate notes for the counterpoint part mechanically, following the rules. Let's say I've got this example: Is it really possible to hear two voices in your head, rather than hearing them as separate voices? How can I practice this? Is the underlying harmony as important as the separate voices? By that I mean: what's more important? To hear them as Cantus Firmus: DFE etc and Counterpoint AAG etc or as P5 M3 m3? Thank you in advance.

Thank you. Are there ear training books that you can recommend?. I already own Ron Gorow's Hearing and Writing Music. The problem is that most books deal with intervals only. Ron Gorow talks about how to practise hearing different harmony behind any musical phrase, so that's good. I've played jazz a number of years, and even though I got pretty decent, I didn't really develop a good ear to write contrpunctual music. In jazz you mostly deal with the soprano line. If you can hear it, you're ok. But actually hearing contrpunctial music in my head is beyond me at this stage.

Hi there, I've composing for some time, mainly minuettes in the style of Mozart and Bach. I'm struggling with writing (and thus hearing) more than one line. It took me quite some time to learn how to write single lines without the piano (intervals drilling etc) and I can also, to a certain point, hear what kind of harmony should go behind the lines. However, I'm not good at writing multiple lines. How do you develop the ear so you can actually hear multiple lines in your head? I've learnt to compose by sininging. At this point, I don't really have to sing out loud per se, I can hear single lines in my head as well, but I do anyway more often than not. However, I just don't hear multiple lines in my head. How do I go about this? Also another question, but maybe this should be different threat, how can I learn to hear harmony in my head which is needed for 4-part writing. I've been trying to do the excersies from Piston's Harmony (5th edition), but I can't really hear in my head all the spread, close voicing. If I see a chord on paper, I don't exactly hear it in my head, like I would hear a single note line. Many questions, hope someone can help me out. Thanks.